New Dell Vostro laptops: Small, cheap, Ivy Bridge

Before there were ultrabooks, we always had a soft spot in our heart for the Vostro, a smartly designed, slim, and surprisingly affordable small-business laptop line from Dell that borrowed some design touches from the long-departed Adamo.

Laptops like Dell's own XPS 13 have stolen the Vostro's thunder, but the new Vostro line announced today includes second- and third-gen Intel Core i-series processors, AMD and Nvidia optional graphics in the 14- and 15-inch Vostro 3460 and 3560, and optional 4G LTE mobile broadband. Fingerprint readers come standard, along with DigitalPersona file encryption software and Trend Micro security software preinstalled.

Note: these laptops aren't the same as the thinner Vostro V131, but are updates to the larger 3350, 3450, and 3550 Vostro laptops.

The Dell Vostro 3560
Dell

The 13-inch Vostro 3360 starts at $649, and is only 0.76 inch thin. The larger 14-inch Vostro 3460 and 15-inch Vostro 3560 start at $599, and come with larger batteries, more USB 3.0 ports, and optional ExpressCard slots.